Anyone want to join me in a minimalist journey?

[lucysnowe]

I've been reading a load of minimalist mum blogs and have been brainwashed inspired . We are undergoing some building work at the mo and the amount of stuff everywhere is absolutely doing me head in. Once it is finished I want to have a ginormous sort and throw out. We are getting a tumble dryer and I plan to start culling clothes, sheets, towels etc, with the aim of getting ALL washing done each week and not have massive full up bins cluttering up the place. Next: toys, ornaments, and random bits of paper. Anyone fancy doing the same for the New Year?

Me too finding this thread inspiring.

Just keeping to even one little thing is helping, today I went through the cutlery drawer and identified threeitems for charity box.

The main problem for me is actually getting to charity shop. I work three days a week and have toddlers in other days, so physically getting box of stuff in shop is nigh impossible with children in tow, and I won't leave them in car. We drive into town tomorrow on way to church so well try and get dh to pull over by shop to drop off stuff.

makes me want a label maker.

Well I got DH to go through his CDs. He has agreed to let most of them go. I'm very surprised, but some of his were worth £1.50 each, so that is good. Also selected 3 Wii games to go. Geting more money for them that 35 cds, but the important thing is that all of it is leaving my house. There were quite a few CDs music magpie didn't want so they will be going straight in the bin.

I am also finding this thread very motivationg. I was super motivated when I was off work, too much time on my hands I think. And without this thread I think I would have jsut stopped but it is keeping me going, even if it is only little bits at a time.

Wow Antoinette that is one organised home. I do have a label maker and do go through phases of labelling everything.

She doesn't have a very minimalist wardrobe though! I don't think you'd need colour coded hangers if you did.

Her house still looks quite cluttery though, doesn't it!

Progress has slowed again with me as I work at the end part of the week, so I am looking forward to tomorrow morning when I can get back on it. Everything has spiralled a bit out of control and the flat looks like a bombsite, with boxes and bags waiting to be sorted all over the place.

The one thing I have been doing - and its one that I vowed not to get sidetracked in to - is sorting my old photos and empty albums. I have half filled two albums and a baby book and managed to get rid of a carrier bags worth of photos I don't want. This is amazing progress for me - I have previously found it impossible to get rid of ANY photos so I have two Tesco wine carriers (the kind that hold about a dozen bottles each) full of photos. I have been doing it for about 20 minutes a day, when my DD is sleeping and the chores are done and I can't do any noisy decluttering. Its really satisfying! And I have had such a giggle going through all my old photos that its quite theraputic too.

My targets for the week are to completely empty the Basement of Doom, and put oilskins down on the floor to stop the damp rising into any boxes that I am going to store in there. This will mean a few days of horror in the flat as the stuff that is down there is brought up, but then hopefully I can only put things that I want and am going to use back down there. Anything else will go in the bin or to the charity shop. Its a mammoth task but by writing it down here I will have to go through with it!

issima I think music magpie take some clothes?

That's what I thought about her house too-v v organised but oh my God what a lot of STUFF!!

Morning all. Just checking in!

Interesting, this organised vs minimalist thing. I used to be really obsessed with trying to organise my stuff. Now I'm thinking if it needs loads of organising, there's too much. I do, however, have a little label maker (having read Getting Things Done) and it is my friend...

yy Harriet Before this thread I really thought that what I needed was better storage in my flat. Its patently obvious to me now, that I need less storage, less stuff, less everything! I put a horrible plastic stacky thing in the skip last week that I had been planning on putting all sorts of clutter in. I had to stop myself in my tracks and say "No, just get rid of the bloody clutter woman!"

Thank you for recommending We Buy Books. My second boxful is parcelled up and waiting to be sent tomorrow.

I thought WeBuyBooks would be great for me, but after entering 12 ISBNs of some classic textbooks (mostly havent had new editions since) and other hardbacks, the only one they were interested in was one out-of-print paperback they would give me £3 for. Which goes for £10-20 on Ebay.

I've got another bunch of baby items together to sell/give away on the local parents Facebook group, so just need to get photos up.

And very proud of 2 bags of papers for recycling, getting rid of almost all old bank statements and loads of work seminar handouts etc. I also went through the medicine cabinet chucking anything a year out of date. I have 3 days with no kids about this coming week, so hope to go through all the toys then without them constantly moving them all about and re-losing pieces in the process!

I'm not aiming for minimalist but we have a large house so it shouldn't look stupidly cluttered - my hope is for it not to be obvious we both grew up in hoarding families. My parents are mostly recovered, thanks to various overseas moves. It's so much easier seeing what you can chuck out when it's in a handy cardboard box that's been sealed up for over a decade. My dad did a box every few days for the first couple years after retiring, and now their house is lovely!

A box every few days for a couple of years?? God, that is a lot of stuff! My basement pales into insignificance compared to that

Heh. After returning from the first country with a very large house and Stuff expanded to fit, we then returned to UK for a bit, back to a small house so lots never got unpacked before going to another country or staying in storage. After country 2, most of the stuff from country 1 was finally unpacked and it became clear that some boxes had never arrived. The insurance company was totally unsympathetic as it had been 10 years since the move!

For some reason my parents weren't allowed to have furnished flats but had to find somewhere unfurnished (often involving bribing someone to remove all the furniture for a day, as most cities didn't have unfurnished places to rent), and got a generous allowance to buy furniture and stuff. Then every couple years, so another 7 times, everything would be sent back to UK and they had to start again, and obviously the boxes didn't fit in the house there so stayed in storage...
Though most of it was all the papers from my dad's work, which sometimes needed going through to find a certain document. At least 20 years on it could almost all be finally ditched!

I want to achieve their level of house space before I retire...

Antoinette that film you linked to is hilarious! I particularly liked the 'mail center'. My god, she had a lot of stuff. It demonstrated nicely that storage is NOT the answer, it's just more stuff.

DD is currently sorting out her room and it is (almost) tidy. She is giving away two carrier bagfuls of Sylvanian Families which I will stash with some of the Playmobil stuff until I put it all on eBay in a couple of months. The top shelf of our wardrobe has become the place to put stuff that is going to be sold or given to the charity shop. That way it feels less overwhelming as it chunks it down.

I'm starting to resent some of the storage units and cupboards in our very small house. I keep thinking if we got rid of the stuff we didn't need or use, there would be more space for an armchair for me to read in etc.

I was slightly staggered by the latest Simple Mom blog:

simplemom.net/a-day-in-the-life/

It sounds chaotic and not simple at all!

Also agree with others on the benefit of this thread for keeping me on track. I would probably still be sorting stuff out, unsubscribing from newsletters etc. but it's motivated me to keep doing a little every day. I'm really seeing the benefits of that.

I can't begin to start on photos or old letters although boring paperwork I've been doing quite well with. How do you all store your photos? I'm not a fan of photo albums.

I think SimpleMom needs to get out more, tbh.

Cash4clothes, but they need to be resalable to Poland.

For all her faffing about and busy busy-ness SimpleMom doesn't get much done. Reckon she needs to do some life minimising

That's what I thought-I don't think she does any more than any other SAHM to be honest.

On a different note, what would you all do with this dilemma? We have all the boxes our crystal glasses etc came in-they fit two to a box so there are loads of boxes. DH thinks we should keep them for when we next move as they're useful for keeping them safe. I think we don't know when we're going to move (we only bought this house in May!), it might not be for years or ever, they're taking up loads of room in the attic (Ok, not loads, but it's still an unnecessary waste of space) and as they're all cardboard they'll probably fall apart up there anyway.

So who's right-DH to keep them, or me to stick them in the recycling?

Ditch them Antoinette, ditch them!

My DH was like this when we first married about boxes for his stereos etc. I pointed out he wasn't an itinerant student any more, and might not move again for years, and he saw the light .

Good, one vote for me I might sneakily ditch them when he's at work tomorrow morning...

OMIGOD I gave up with the film when I saw her organised pegboard for her craft projects. There is sooooo much wrong sociologically on every level with her apparent way of life I think, I lost the will to live.

We're fairly minimal already (well, I am, DH isn't!) but we had a challenge to give 100 things to a charity shop in town this month. Up to 83 so far. Was in there yesterday and saw someone paying £4.50 for one of our cast-offs so felt very happy.

The pegboard was extraordinary wasn't it...she practically shivered with delight over her ribbons! Part of me is enormously jealous of her organisational skills and another part thinks 'bet you don't use half of that'.

100 things to charity in a month is amazing! Good challenge. Maybe we should all do it!